You know you are used to being in China when....

....a car starts driving in a bike lane against traffic and you aren't worried for anyone's safety.

....you refuse to sit on the ground, or set your bag on the ground because it is dirty (maybe this is just a big city thing)
....you are not scared when you cross the street
....you carry an umbrella with you, and use it when its sunny or raining.
....someone bumps into you you don't even notice

Last night I went to the ICB Halloween party, and it was a blast.  I had planned to go in my leopard costume, but I got out of class at 6pm, and the party started at 7pm.  It takes an hour to put on the make up (at least) and I wanted to eat.  So I decided to just do the spider web face instead.  When I was stepping out to get food, I ran into a group of guys dressed up fancy in the ICB guest house.  This is weird cause most people don't wear fancy formal clothes and students are not allowed in the ICB guest house (except for me, cause I live here).  So they had decided to come and kidnap as many teachers as they could and escort them to the party.  ^^  So I grabbed my eyeliner and my lipstick, put in the scary contacts and left.  One of the guys, Lizhong, was my friend on renren (we had spent some time talking on renren) sort of adopted me.  They made sure we got seats, food, glow sticks, they talked with us on the way there.  

OK, time to compare parties.  College parties in the US do not invite teachers, generally have alcohol and involve food, chatting, and dancing.  Parties in China seem to be more organized.  At first it is more of a...show, there are people with microphones introducing acts, there were dancers and shows.  Then they cleared the dance floor.  And me being me....I hid in a corner.  I don't dance.  

After some dancing, they started having some choreographed dance shows.  One of my friends Vivi was in a tango (she was AWESOME) and there were some break dancers...glow sticks ect.  Then someone decided to do a snake....like....I'm forgetting the English word for it, where you put your hand on the shoulders of the person in front of you?  And walk around...or run.  Well...I was taking photos/video and Lizhong passed me in the snake, and tried to get me to join.  He failed.  But one of his friends was standing right next to me, and she grabbed me and made me join.  Next thing I know I'm running around the dance floor trying to hold onto the person in front of me.  Then the choreographed dances ended, and I found Lizhong and told him it was his fault that I got pulled into that snake.  Then he asked me to dance.  One on one dancing....I suck, but after about 30 seconds of that, a bunch of people decided that they wanted to do group dancing....like a circle holding hands.  That was so much fun.  It was a mix of a dance club and a mosh pit.  Ring-around-the-rosy on steroids.  Eventually there were 3 or 4 different circles on the dance floor...all of them running in circles.  And then a song ended.  And the party ended.  Which was good cause at that point I was about to collapse from all the running (my arms are sore from being pulled/pulling).  Parties are much more organized here.  They have a schedule, they have shows, and they have a curfew.  o.O  I think that the party ended at like 10. I had a really really good time, and I'm glad Lizhong got me to dance.  

I am also really glad I didn't wear the leopard costume, first of all, I would have fallen more (cause the costume has high heels), secondly I probably would have ripped or broken something in the costume, and third of all, I would have stood out even more.  Everyone would have wanted a photo with me (some people did, but I wasn't overwhelmed).  Anyway I need to go, I have a lot of stuff to do today.  I just wanted to give a quick update!!!!

Forgot to add...

....next weekend I'm leaving Beijing.  We are going inland to visit PingYao over the weekend.  Thats where the Chinese film "Raise the Red Lantern" was filmed.  This is good for me for multiple reasons, I saw and liked the movie, it will be the furthest from the coast that I have ever been.  I'll also get to see a smaller city, and I'll see more traditional houses and hear different accents.  I will also be with teachers, no students so that is kinda a bummer because there won't be as many people my age, but at least I'll have a group I can fall back on if I need help.  One of the students (Dave) asked if he could go, I don't think he was serious though.  I asked one of the teachers about it but then she said she'd have to open the trip to all students and it was too short notice for that. 

Heathcare questioner

I got a package in the mail recently.  It was from my mom, and it had a insurance questioneer which was interesting to fill out in China.  Some of the questions were asking about how frequently I exercise.  I wasn't sure how to answer.  Because of badminton and biking the amount of exercise I do regularly has increased.  I also know I've lost weight since I came here, but I don't have a scale, so I don't know how much I weigh (I don't really care but it makes it hard to answer that question).  Then it asked about seatbelts.  In the US I always wear a seatbelt.  Here....I don't think I have worn a seatbelt since I've landed.  They are kinda like helmets.  People here don't use them.  So when I got to that question...how frequently do I use my seatbelt, I was like...which country?   


I have gotten much more comfortable biking.  I also have gotten much more familiar with the traffic patterns.  I only feel like I'm going to die when I cross the street half the time now.  Seriously you have to be careful crossing the street.  Its also interesting riding your bike in the bike lane, going against traffic.  Especially since cars frequently use the bike lanes.  One of the professors here was talking about situational awareness.  I've become very apt at looking ahead and behind and everywhere cause there are so many people here!  I started out riding my bike on campus (less traffic) till I got the hang of it again.  I'm still not 100% comfortable riding, but I think that's a good thing, cause it means I'm paying attention to the world around me.  

Well I have been playing Badminton once a week for the last four weeks.  I have actually been having a lot of fun with it.  It wasn’t till this last time that I actually got upset.  The first match, I was just learning to hit the birdie.  The next two times I got comfortable enough that I was able to do overhand swings with the racquet and manage to hit the birdie.  And this time it occurred to me that I ought to move.  The problem was I kept moving away from the birdie.  I still have this deep instinct to duck when things are flying at me, and I still haven’t quite broken myself of this habit.  I’ve been hit with it before, it doesn’t hurt (even when its going fast), I just need to retrain myself.  But what was really frustrating for me was I have no power behind my swing.  All the other guys can hit it pretty fast.  Even some of the girls I saw playing could hit the birdie with a fair amount of speed.  But it seemed like when I tried to hit it hard, I missed.  And I come home and my arm is all sore the next day.  So maybe I need to start doing push ups, or lifting weights or something to make my arm muscles strong enough to hit it fast.  Yaohui pointed out (accurately) that I was being impatient.  Its just incredibly frusterating knowing what you need to do (put more power behind your swings) and not being able to do it.  But for the last two days my arm and shoulder have been sore from using new muscles.  Maybe by the time I leave I'll actually be able to play with some power behind my hits.  

Last week was the holiday, so I was spending most of my time hanging out with friends. I went out for hot pot, went to the movies 3 times, went shopping, and had a really good time. I went to see Source Code (it was in English with Chinese subtitles) in the theater. I really recommend it. I also saw the Chinese film 画壁 (huabi/Mural) in theaters twice.  It was pretty good, Chinese film English subtitles. The only class that I really had to work on over the break was Chinese.  Chinese is pretty hard.  I'm the only student in the class, so if I don't know the answer I'm pretty much in trouble.  But also we have been working on my tones a fair amount because they are really off.  I know I've been miss-pronouncing individual words but I haven't gotten the individual attention to improve this.  Its also interesting because everyone in Beijing has different accents.  I was hanging out with some classmates Dave and James one day and they said that "90 percent of the Chinese people living in Beijing aren't 'real' Beijingers, but you should listen to our accent because we are real Beijingers".  That led me to ask what a real Beijinger was.  They meant that even their grandparents had been born in Beijing.  Meaning that my friend Christina isn't a 'real' Beijinger by their definition because her parent moved from Shanghai.  Its sort of is like Colorado pride on steroids.  The regional distinctions within this country are pretty large.  So most of the people I run into here don't use the Beijing 儿 (r) pirate accent.  I probably won't pick it up.  

Recently the ICB Advertising class got an assignment to take photos of things that they like about the ICB program.  All the sudden groups of students went up to me and asked me to pose with them in photos. Because I'm the token American student in this program for this semester.  I explained to them that a lot of Americans do not feel comfortable with their photos being taken, so if they ever find themselves state-side they need to make sure they ask first.  More people here don't care as much about their photos being taken, unless they are the older generation.  I wonder how many photos of me actually will crop up in the ICB program, or the UCD study abroad program.  I have been having trouble uploading photos on facebook.  So I'm kinda not updating that.  

Oh the other night I tried brains (I don't know which animal), and pheasant intestines.  The intestines were chewy.  I really felt like I was eating a cat tongue.  I did not enjoy the experience.  But the brains were actually pretty good.  Very soft, lots of flavor.  BTW most Chinese people don't eat foods like that.  Dave wouldn't touch the brains, and he is born and raised Chinese, so don't assume these foods are normal.  I think my friend Sean was trying to give me an oppertunity to try exotic foods.  He didn't push me to eat them though, which is what made me try them.  I really appreciated that he made them available but didn't say you have to try this now.  And he didn't try to hide what it was before I ate it.  So as far as exotic foods go I have tried duck blood (liked it), lungs (pretty good), brain (pretty good), and intestines (gross).  

Well I gotta finish homework now and head to class.  Just thought I was passed due for an update.